Vertex Drug Poised for Pivotal Trial Among Patients Who Fail Prior Hepatitis C Treatments

Luke Timmerman8/19/08

Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the developer of telaprevir for hepatitis C, said today it has reached agreement with U.S. and European regulators to begin a pivotal trial for patients who failed to have their disease cured by prior therapies. The Cambridge, MA-based company (NASDAQ: VRTX) said it will enroll 650 patients in the study, called Realize. Vertex is pursuing the study, the first pivotal trial among the difficult-to-treat patient population, after a prior study called Prove 3 showed in June that telaprevir eliminated the virus for 52 percent of patients for at least 12 weeks.

Luke Timmerman is the National Biotech Editor of Xconomy, and the Editor of Xconomy Seattle. E-mail him at ltimmerman@xconomy.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ldtimmerman.